


Operation: Wardmarsh (a Love is Strange epilogue)

by DevinTowerwood



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Amusement Park, F/F, Fluff, Get-Together Fic, Love is Strange, Multi, Multiple Pov, Normal AU, clueless lesbian Kate Marsh, two years post-Love is Strange
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-26 19:14:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15669543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevinTowerwood/pseuds/DevinTowerwood
Summary: Max, Chloe, and Rachel arrive at Six Flags Magic Mountain to see their old high school friends Kate and Dana, who are on vacation in California. Once they catch wind of feelings between Dana and Kate, however, they make it their mission to play matchmaker and get these two clueless girls to talk to each other.Rachel is a relentless flirt, Kate is an animate pile of feelings, Chloe hates roller coasters, Dana loves shit-talking old classmates, and Max still has a crush on everyone. Some things never change.





	1. Matchmaker Mode Activated

**Author's Note:**

  * For [misdemeanour](https://archiveofourown.org/users/misdemeanour/gifts).



> This is a story that my friend Sammy and I devised two years ago as we talked about how much we loved Amberpricefield and Wardmarsh. Sadly we never got around to writing it together, but as I've been reading their work again lately, I wanted to see if I could write this as a little gift in memory of all the cute things we came up with together (along with the other AU they helped me create, _Something Wicked_ ).

**Max**

"Max, why are you t-posing?" Chloe asks. Max keeps her eyes shut while Rachel sprays her arms with sun screen.

"This just seems optimal?" And it is. Max has a decade of experience and an untold number of sun burns on her chest and ears reminding her what happens when she tells herself she can be relied on to apply sun screen. Chloe, on the other hand, has let the summer sun fry her skin this year. As much as Chloe insists that Rachel and Max should find the tan sexy, Max can't help but fear skin cancer twenty years down the line every time she starts picking at her peeling skin.

"Turn," Rachel says, placing a hand on Max's hip to pull her around. Rachel ducks under Max's propeller blade arms before spraying her front.

"It seriously looks like Rachel is your squire helping you put on armor before a great battle where you'll inevitably be shot dead by a stray arrow anyway."

Max opens one eye, Chloe scrutinizing her closely. "I'm most comfortable when I'm impervious to UV radiation," she said. "You're gonna literally die if you wear a tank top and no sun screen."

Rachel stands and says, "Chloe is not going to die because she's not allowed in the park without protection. Eyes closed."

Max holds her breath and closes her eyes in anticipation. There's a short lull where she's expecting the sweet-smelling spray to start at any second, but it doesn't come. Instead, Rachel gives her a peck on the lips and Max laughs.

"Okay, but seriously, eyes closed," Rachel repeats, then sprays Max's face and neck.

Max absolutely despises the feeling of oil on her skin but loves the idea of having skin at the end of today, so she tolerates it as best she can.

Once the mist has cleared and she's overcome her fear of oily death, Max blinks to check if it's safe, and finds some people approaching from behind.

"Long time no see, you delinquents."

Chloe looks over her shoulder to see who's talking, but Rachel needs no confirmation. As soon as she hears the voice, she spins around and dashes straight for them. "DANA!" she squeals, and tackles her way right into her old friend's chest. She nearly bowls her over, but Dana wraps her arms around Rachel's whole body and lifts her up, making her squealing even worse.

Kate stands by her side, amused, but backing up to avoid getting hit by Rachel's flailing legs. She looks so much different than Max remembers, with her hair down and braided, and the starched dresses and skirts she used to wear swapped out for a t-shirt and jeans. She raises her hand in a little wave and Max grins, tempted to go bear-hug her like Rachel would.

Max at least has the good sense to walk over at a normal human pace and ask, "Hug?", falling into an awkward diagonal-armed embrace at Kate's 'yeah, totally.' The hug is less stiff than they used to be (Kate's relaxed some around touching and they've both put on weight in college, and Max can't help but appreciate the softness).

"It's been so long," Kate says as they split back apart. She keeps one hand on Max's shoulder as she looks her up and down, lifting her eyebrows. "And you've gotten so much gayer."

At first Max takes this as an indicator that her shirt is gay (it  _does_ have a rainbow on it), until she remembers her pink side cut and rainbow wristband are much more obvious details. The LA college scene is so different from Blackwell's snobby rich kids and their designer shoes or whatever, and it had rubbed off on Max the worst. Chloe's day job at an Amazon warehouse also gave her enough space to fill out her tattoos and piercings until she was the punk dyke you could spot a mile away. Rachel is less lucky, thanks to her occasional modeling jobs wanting her to be clean-cut, feminine, and 'approachable.'

"Aw, thanks," Max says. "I try."

"Hey now, stop hogging Kate," Chloe says placing a hand on Max's shoulder. Max steps out of the way so Chloe can lean down and give Kate the proper bear hug Max couldn't.

Once they've all given each other their proper hello, the five of them make their way towards the park entrance. It's hot as hell as it is almost every day of summer at Six Flags, and somehow Kate and Dana can take it better than Max, who had never adjusted to the California climate. Chloe, Rachel, and Dana walk ahead, chatting excitedly, whereas it takes Max and Kate a few minutes to find much to say. Eventually, Max figures out how to small talk again.

She says, "So, how's the University of Oregon? . . . UOO?"

Kate rolls her eyes. "Don't bother abbreviating it, you can't do that like with the CSUs. Also, pretty good?"

"Just pretty good?"

Kate sighs. "Well, I mean, the first year was literally nothing but GEs, and I'm like, super not suited for dorm life. This year's a little bit better now that I'm living off-campus and I actually get to take some writing classes, but I guess . . . I'm a little disappointed."

"Oh, huh." Max isn't quite sure what that means, so she takes a second to scan the plaza to see where they're supposed to go to enter the park.  Then, "Wait, like, disappointed in the college?"

Kate shrugs; "I mean, I guess? It's not like the college is bad or anything, I just . . . I thought it would be more challenging. Academically."

It takes Max a minute to even get what that means. She has  _not_ been having that experience - coursework had been crushing so far in comparison to her high school or Blackwell experience, and they'd had a lot of classes overlapping back in senior year. Then again, Kate got 'A's back then like it was a breeze, whereas Max had to lean heavily on music and photography to keep from flunking. Maybe having actually learned math and physical sciences in high school makes college easy.

"Like . . . your classes are all easy?" Max asks, scratching the back of her head.

"Nah, it's . . . hm." Kate sweeps some stray tufts of hair from her forehead behind her hear. "Like, the amount of work keeps it from being 'easy', but my classes are so big and it feels like the expectations are so low that putting in any more than the minimum effort is a waste. Like I haven't gotten anything but 100 percent on a paper yet because I like, I don't know, use thesis statements. It's . . ." Kate pauses, considering her words carefully. She settles on, "I can do better, is all."

On one hand, Max had also been struggling with how little her school work and spotty professional photography actually challenged her. On the other hand, the conversion to digital photography and editing had not been an easy one after so many years with analog, and her computer skills prior to college had been just enough to run macros on World of Warcraft. The struggle to learn has been much more obvious to her than the struggle with her skills being under-utilized.

"I kind of get that," Max says.

Rachel, Chloe, and Dana have entered a different line than Max and Kate to make having their stuff searched faster. Meanwhile, Max capitalizes on the distance to gossip.

"So, how has living with Dana been? I was really surprised when I saw you moved in together." This was really Max's subtle way of asking if Kate and Dana were dating, but that seemed to slip right by Kate.

"Oh, uh," Kate says, but pauses to get through security. Once Max follows after her, she says, "I mean, it's been really nice. Dana's a lot more . . . conscientious than my last roommate. And we've even tried going to some clubs together, but. I don't know. We haven't really found our niche, I guess. So far it's mostly like being best friends, but where we have dinner at our apartment instead of the dining commons."

"Hm." That's not really what Max was searching for. And although it was taking forever to get Chloe through security, Max knew she didn't have much time to clarify before the group merged back into one. "So like . . . are you two an item?"

Kate's eyes went go with surprise as she bites her lip. She scratches her temple as she thinks for a second, then says, "Um . . . no. Why do you ask?"

"Oh. Uh, well, I guess, it's just like." Max freezes. She knows exactly why she thought it, but she also doesn't want to sound like she combs through the Instagrams of old friends to see if they've turned out gay. Which is exactly what she does, but saying so is weird.

"Like, um. Dana kind of calls you 'my girl' a lot online? So I thought, maybe?"

Kate blushes, still looking trapped for a second, then averts her eyes as she un-freezes into awkwardness with Max. She says, "I mean, yeah, I guess she does that. That's how she introduces me to her friends, too, I just . . ." she looked past Max towards Dana and Rachel. "I mean, she's never said anything? And we've both talked about liking girls, I just don't think she's into me."

"Are you into her?"

Max turns to look where Kate is looking. That quickly catches Dana's attention, and she waves over to them as Chloe finally exits security. Her smile is bright and beautiful, and it's not much of a leap for Max to imagine being in love with her, given the chance. Or is she missing something, some detail that makes it unable to work? Or is it possible that you could really, truly be that close to someone and not fall in love with them? Max has heard tales of this, certainly, but she's also certainly never experienced it.

Kate doesn't reply by the time the other three approach them.

"Out-of-state visitors get first pick," Rachel says as they form up and start walking into the park.

Dana replies with a shrug and a, "I literally don't know any of the rides, though?"

So Max offers, "How about Tatsu?"

And Chloe groans and says, "God, can't we start a little easier?"

"What's Tatsu?" asks Kate.

Max points towards the very top of the hill in the center of the park. "It's one where you get to be a dragon and it's very fun." Rachel seems to appreciate Max's enthusiasm, and Chloe deeply does not.

Luckily, Kate is there to back Max up and says, "Dragons are cool. Let's do that."

And, as one final nail in the coffin, Dana nods. "Being a dragon works for me."

Everyone looks to Rachel to see if she'll swing the vote or break the mold and choose something different than either of her girlfriends. Instead, she walks a step ahead of everyone and slaps her bare thigh on her dragon tattoo. "Literally what do you think I'm here for if not to be a dragon?"

Max raises her arms in triumph while Chloe slumps, dramatically drained, barely able to continue.


	2. Shoot Your Shot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate wars with herself about her feelings towards Dana - and more importantly, Dana's feelings towards her. Just as she's getting ready to instigate a subtle plan of attack, Rachel swoops in to make sure she realizes what she's doing.
> 
> Then, the gang heads for Hurricane Harbor.

**Kate**

Kate hasn't had a clear head since her talk with Max.

They've been in the park for a while now, hopping from Tatsu over to some rides that Chloe actually likes (e.x. anything super hero themed - villain rides need not apply). They're fun and distracting while they last, but soon Kate recognizes that Max and Rachel both keep pairing up whenever Kate is about to get in a ride with either of them, and that usually leads to her sitting side-by-side with Dana. The ride can only distract from so much - certainly not the bright smiles Dana gives every time a ride ends, checking in to make sure Kate is having fun.

Is she into Dana? Kate managed to avoid that question back in high school through all the movie nights, compliments, and football game night cheers of high school, but as soon as she'd run into Dana again in college, she'd been a goner. Somewhere between 'she doesn't have to maintain the cheerleader persona so much anymore' and 'she joined the fencing club,' Kate lost her grip on the weak reservations that kept her from thinking of Dana romantically. Since then it had been much more about making sure the feelings couldn't grow, couldn't be seen - throw a tarp over them and maybe they'll die without sunlight.

Perhaps it's appropriate, then, that Kate calls Dana 'a ray of sunshine,' because it is never enough to stop the amorphous want that seeing Dana carried.

 _What if Max is really right, though? What if Dana already thinks of me that way and I've not bothered to notice? Why_ does _she call me 'my girl'?_ An even worse thought brings a sour taste to Kate's mouth - what if Dana has been completely open about having romantic feelings this entire time and Kate had misinterpreted it all as friendliness? What if she is just as stuck in heteronormativity as she had been in high school and a solid year of signals have gone right over her head?

The five of them are walking down from the hill in the center of the park towards a ride called Superman Chloe's been convinced will be fun, and Kate isn't contributing anything to the conversation. She can't. Dana and Chloe are leading the pack, with Max, Rachel, and Kate following behind in a row. Max and Rachel are fine chatting with each other, which helps alleviate (some of) Kate's guilt about being socially useless. She just stares at Dana, glancing around at the park anyone might notice what she's doing. She has to figure this out. Max instilled a sense of urgency in her to understand her feelings and make sense of Dana's and nothing is going to be okay until she's pulled that off.

 _But what if you confess and she really is just being a sweet heart? She says she likes girls but have you ever seen her with one? Or what if she liked you once but gave up because you didn't pick up on it?_ An even grosser thought comes to mind:  _What if she lost interest because I'm abstinent?_

Dana wouldn't be the first girl to lose interest because of Kate's boundaries around sex.  _Her_ is a rough time as it is, but even when she flagged her boundaries from the very beginning, by a second date girls seemed to think Kate could shed her values like a snake outgrowing its skin. Dana might be cool enough to see the distinction between giving up your faith and unlearning internalized homophobia, but that didn't mean that she was down for the results.

They are waiting in line for Superman now and Kate hasn't spoken a word to anyone in the past ten minutes. Rachel keeps shooting Kate worried glances that Kate pretends not to see.

"Kate?" Max asks, "You doing okay?"

"Huh?"

Dana is leaning against a wall only a few feet away and looks up from her phone over to them.

Max shrugs and says, "I dunno, you seem a little spacey."

"Oh." Kate replies, more nervous now that everyone but Chloe is paying attention to her. "I think I'm just a little hungry? Low blood sugar, you know."

"Aw," Rachel whines sympathetically. "How about we find someplace to eat after this?"

"Uh, yeah, sounds good," Kate agrees.

That's enough to quell almost everyone's concern, but as everyone else stops paying attention, Rachel's eyes narrow in suspicion. Kate gives her an awkward smile in response, tucks a few strands of hair behind her ear, and pretends she doesn't notice Rachel continuing to look at her.

 

They end up just grabbing french fries and sodas to stave off hunger until they head over to Hurricane Harbor. Kate has managed to work herself into a more generous interpretation of the situation with Dana:  _Maybe Dana just doesn't know how to show interest in girls when flirting with boys looks almost no different than being friendly with girl friends._ That feels realistic. If you've only had one style of flirting modeled for you, than how do just know you need to do something different?

They're walking up into the plaza near the entrance to Tatsu with all the carnival games when Kate comes up with a plan to undo all of the miscommunication. Back in high school, Kate had taken so long to notice that Max was interested in Rachel because they already touched each other a lot before they ever got together. Kate had labeled this as 'Friendly', and it had been  _until it was mutually understood not to be_. But as soon as those two started spending some time alone together, boom, the same interactions - the arm-grabbing, the hugging, the hand-holding - became romantic. So, hypothetically, all Kate had to do was take an ambiguous action and for them both to understand it as flirting. If Dana really had been flirting with her this whole time, then this should get the message across.

They're passing by a free-throw basketball carnival game when Kate finally builds up the resolve. Dana is walking a few steps ahead of her with Max and Chloe, and Rachel is looking at her phone as they walk. Kate can just speed up, walk beside Dana, and take her hand like it's the most casual thing in the world. Dana has done that to her, after all, so even if Kate is wrong about everything, she could just let go after a minute and they'd never speak about it and it wasn't even that far to the nearest bathroom where she could go cry if she needed to. Which, to be honest, is pretty unlikely. It's almost impossible for her to cry with other people nearby.

Kate takes a deep breath, then begins to pick up her pace. She's beside Dana and Dana hasn't even noticed, and she wipes the nervous sweat from her hands, and she's ready to reach out, and -

"Oh, Kate! Win me something!"

Rachel grabs ahold of Kate's upper arm and veers her suddenly off to the side. Dana and the others glance over but Rachel just waves as she drags Kate towards one of those shoot-the-target games.

"Uh, Rachel, I'm not really - I'm not really any good at games like this?" Kate protests as they arrive at the booth.

Rachel doesn't even glance over at Kate - she just pulls out some dollar bills and hands them over to the person running the booth. "Oh yeah?" she asks, unsurprised. "Guess I'll have to win something for  _you_ then."

Rachel picks up the mock rifle and holds it against her shoulder like she's aiming a shot gun. "All right, I'm good to go," she says.

Kate stands there awkwardly, unsure why she'd been brought along for this adventure given that Rachel was better friends with literally everyone else here.

"Max got into your head, didn't she?" Rachel asks as the game begins. She takes a shot and misses, but quickly adjusts and hits the first target.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Rachel begins, hitting the second target, "She asked you if you have feelings for Dana and you've been freaking out ever since."

"Oh." Kate folds her arms over her chest. The pace of the game picks up and Rachel picks up right along with it, nailing the next three targets in short succession. "It shows?" Kate asks.

"Kate, you may be quiet but you're not subtle." Another shot. "Plus, Max told me."

The conversation pauses while Rachel wraps up the game, only missing two more targets and earning one of the larger prizes. She takes a look around for the others, then pays for another game.

Rachel continues, "You see, Max has this bad habit of trying to get people together to increase the number of gay couples in the world, no matter how nosey it looks. She's super confident that love'll work out if your feelings are sincere and also assumes everyone's feelings are sincere. It's sweet. But it can be a little . . ."

"Nosey?" Kate offers.

Rachel cocks her head slightly, as much of a shrug as she can give while holding the rifle. "Yeah, nosey. And a little naive, I think." Rachel pauses to finish up the game for a second time. She spent too much time talking and missed five of her shots this time, but she seems satisfied. She gets two teddy bears dressed up as Batman and Wonder Woman, then hands the Wonder Woman one to Kate. "Chloe loves Batman," she explains.

 _And I love Wonder Woman!_ "How'd you know I like Wonder Woman?"

Rachel cocks an eyebrow, holding Batman under one arm and linking the other around Kate's arm. "You and Max took Media Studies together, right? She said you loved the comics."

"Oh," Kate says, blushing. It feels weird that Max remembers things like that about her, nevermind Rachel learning about it.

"She may be naive and nosey, but she is also attentive. And she catches you off guard with that fucking sincerity . . . so I don't think I'm going to hold it against her." Rachel looks off to the other side of the courtyard where Max, Chloe, and Dana are playing their own game together. She's in love, and that softens Kate's heart. 

Kate runs her thumb over her new bear's soft fur. "Look, I like Dana - it took Max about a half-second to figure that out. And I'd like Dana to like me too. But if I mess this up, or she doesn't feel the same way, or if she does but it makes things weird . . . I don't want to compromise my relationship with my best friend, you know?"

Rachel nods. "I do. I know exactly how much being in love can mess things up if you don't know what to do with it. That's why I thought we should have this talk before you shoot your shot."

Kate's blush worsens and she doesn't know why. People always treat Kate like she's opaque, but Rachel saw through her. It's nice, in a way, to have your doubts supported alongside your hopes.

Kate asks, "Do you think I should go for it, though? Just . . . ask Dana if she'd be up for it? Is it worth the risk of messing things up?"

"I think only you can answer that, love," Rachel replies, squeezing Kate's arm. This is exactly the sort of ambiguous flirting that Kate's messed up about right now, but Rachel has always been like this, so Kate tries not to pay it too much attention to how pleasant Rachel's attention is.

Kate throws her head back and groans in frustration after mulling it over for a few seconds. "Why does this have to be harrrddd? Why do I have to weigh my decisions responsibly like an adult whyy?"

It's the first time Rachel's seen Kate complain like this and she starts giggling. Once Kate is done groaning though, they've almost looped around to meet the others, so Rachel leans closer to whisper, "However this goes, I hope you're both happy. I think you'd be lovely together."

Kate is thoroughly red by the time Rachel delivers her back to the group, lips pursed to keep from smiling.

"I brought you your girl back, hun," Rachel says as she drops her hand from Kate's arm. "If you don't win her anything by this evening then I get to keep her."

Dana laughs while Max visibly brightens up. Kate rolls her eyes at the both of them.

Rachel holds the Batman bear aloft and says, "For you, Chloe."

Kate's too distracted by Chloe's excitement from the bear and lifting up Rachel in a tight hug to notice Dana stepping beside her. It's not until Dana's hand wraps around hers that she notices her at all, her heart almost splitting her chest open in surprise.

"Fine, fine," Dana say while they lace their fingers together. "I'll win you something even bigger - I'm really good at the rope climb game. It'll be like, twice the size."

Chloe plops Rachel down on her feet just in time for Rachel to shoot Kate a conspiratory wink. Then, Dana is pulling her away, and Kate's resolve melts.

"Okay but HURRICANE HARBOR AFTER THAT!" Max calls.

"Totally, will do!" Dana calls back, waving at the other three.

**Author's Note:**

> This story will take place in 4-5 chunks, each time changing perspectives to stay where the fluffy action is throughout the day. The order is Max -> Kate -> Rachel -> Dana -> Chloe(?). The chapters are short, so I'll probably be updating this quickly throughout summer.


End file.
